


The Halfway House

by ZurethaMetal



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Death, Mentions of self-harm, happy ending here, non-graphic sex because I'm lazy, this story os basically an existential existance crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 14:34:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15731385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZurethaMetal/pseuds/ZurethaMetal
Summary: Steve Rogers met the woman of his dreams after falling from a skyscraper. The only problem, she is literally the woman of his dreams. He fell in love with her while he was comatose. Six months of holding hands and feeling the happiest he's ever felt- surely it had to be real? Steve sets himself on a journey to find her after he discovers that other people he had dreamt about with her had been real. He wouldn't give up. No way in Hell. He'll find his gal.





	The Halfway House

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've published on this site and the first piece of fan fiction I've posted since I was a sophomore in high school (6 years!!!). But it was just this idea that I had and so I had to do it. I really hope y'all like it!

                                                                          

\-------  
Steve woke up in a small bed. He hurt. God, he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. A door to his left opened and his head jerked towards it, tongue bit and ready to fight. A girl stood in the doorway, eyes wide in surprise. She gives a small smile.  
“Well, looks like you’re awake. Hungry?” she asks and the tension in his body relaxes. He nods.  
“Good. I ain't got much but my mama’s recipe book. I’ll getcha some stew and some water. You just sit tight.”  
He looked around. The floor was dusty, the blanket over him thick and quilted. The window had thick black curtains. There was a desk with a few stacks of crinkled paper, a dresser which looked old and worn, and a bureau which was open and revealed a line of dresses and sportswear. From the 40s. As she returned, he took in her short-cropped curls. The loose fit of her blouse and pants. And he couldn’t help it. He did his best to keep his panic low as she set the food on the bedside table.  
“Where the hell am I?” he asks and her eyes crinkled at the side as she smiled. She didn’t seem outraged. It was like she had been asked these questions countless times before.  
“You’re in my house. I heard a real loud sound last night. That always means someone’s comin'. Found you in my front yard.” Steve grimaced.  
“I shouldn’t be here. What year is it?”  
“I dunno. I’m just kinda here. Judging by the looks of it, probably 1940s? Not your original time? Normally people go to their original time.” Steve squinted. What the actual fuck?  
“What are you talking about? Who are you?” she shrugged.  
“I dunno. I remember that I was in a big accident. Something to do with war. I got hurt really bad and I woke up here. I got left a list of instructions. I help people. People who get hurt like I did. So those people come here, this place changes for them. Helps them feel at home.” she cocks her head. “Ya know...You look awful young to be a 40s boy.” Steve grimaced.  
“I’m uh...I was frozen, for a long time. But I was born in 1918.” she smiled at him. With it, her eyes lit up. She was actually kind of cute. Even though Steve was 99.9% sure she was a figment of his imagination.  
“That’s cool! I’ve never had anyone from cryo before. Except this fella named Bucky, but he’s normally only here for a couple of hours.” Steve gulped.  
“Bucky?! Bucky Barnes?” she raises a brow.  
“You guys buddies? I’ll make sure you guys get some time next time he comes through. I never have more than a few at a time. Right now, I’m an extension of myself. There’s four people here. A young girl. She’s been in a bad accident. An old lady with severe language. A teenage boy who I am fairly sure inflicted his damage on himself, and you, an old man in a young body.” Okay, so Bucky came through. He was definitely in some sort of fever dream. Still, he continued questioning his captor? Savior? He settles for dream girl.  
“So you’re….what are you? You’re confusing.” She squints and grimaces in thought as if she were trying to find the best words.  
“I got this really cool idea that I’m some sort of limbo greeter. Like “hey, you almost died! Here’s a medal and some soup.” and you stay here until you resuscitate. And if you don’t, then you’ll eventually fade from here.”  
“Are you in some sort of stasis too?” she raises a brow. Steve wonder's why he’s so interested. Considering she’s probably not real and all.  
“I dunno. Maybe. I always hurt. Always feel cold, down to my bones. But I’ve never much thought about it. Everything I can remember is scribbled out on the papers on my desk.” she nods towards the pile and Steve notices the picture on the desk. Her and a girl. They look like family. Maybe she’s...realer than he thought? He turned back to her and cleared his throat.  
“And has anyone who's ever woken up gone to look for you?” and she laughs a little like Steve said something obscure.  
“Nah, most people assume I’m death. Or Hod. They pray for their pound of retribution and I just do my best to be kind to them and help them regain their strength. No one asks me this many questions, usually.” Steve squared his shoulders.  
“Get used to it from me.” she smiled at him.  
“Eat your soup, sweetheart. I hear the ringing and I think it might be James.”

It’s an hour later when the limbo lady brings a shivering Bucky into his room. He clings to her and she shushes his cries and wraps him in a quilt.  
Bucky doesn’t look like the one who fell from the train. He has long hair and sad eyes. His left arm is gone. And it hurts, but it makes Steve think that this place is more real.  
“I got a friend here for you, James. He got hurt real bad too. You wanna say hi?” she asks as she strokes long hair back behind his ears. Bucky looks at him and cries anew.  
“Steve!” he sobs and they reach or each other.  
“Hey, Buck.” they talk for a while, soft and sad, about nothing, really. Mindless, though when Steve asks important questions like where he is and what’s happening to him, he avoids them. Daisy brings them cocoa and Bucky threads his fingers in her curls and kisses her forehead soundly.  
“Thanks, doll.” she grins and Steve notes the blush on her cheeks.  
“No problem, sweetheart. Glad you and your friend are getting reacquainted. I can alter the room for two beds if you think they’ll let you stay through the night.?” Bucky nods, and it’s so peaceful to fall into sleep listening to Buck’s breathing.

Steve never asked what waking up looked like, but he awoke during the night to hear bucky screaming and begging for it to stop. And Steve went to grab him, but his hand encountered blanket and mattress and just like that, he was gone. And Steve cried and cried and the woman came in. She hugged him close and shushed him. He clung to her even harder when he looked over and the extra bed was gone too.  
“Shh, honey. It pains me to know he’ll be back. He always comes back.”  
He felt hollow his next few days there. He read the woman’s notes- her name was Daisy, like the flower. He thought that was cute. She had a sister, Nora. She was a soldier, and whatever befell her brought her here in 2006. That settled it for Steve. He wasn’t this creative. This place had to be real.  
He ate with her and they talked quite a bit. They talked about Steve, about what she could remember. They talked about Bucky and why she blushes when he kisses her on the forehead.  
“It ain’t often I get affection of any sort past people clinging to me and begging to not die or leave. James kissed my cheek once when he thanked me and now he just does it because he likes to see me lose my composure and get all pink.” and so Steve kissed her on the forehead and took her hand. She turned the same bright and brilliant pink that she had the other night and Steve grinned.  
“I can see the appeal.” and she rolled her eyes and snorted. Steve asked more questions now that he was sure he wasn’t having a fever dream.  
“Is this place limited to just your house or is there some sort of spirit-world?”  
“Well, I live in the country so I’ve never traveled farther than the woods. You’re welcome to come outside, though. I do have a garden that needs tending.” Steve hadn’t left his room yet. He gets the feeling the others don't leave either. But he follows Daisy outside. The sky is soft and blue, the sun bright, but it’s not hot. It’s cool. It feels nice. She shows him her collection of flowers. All different kinds, all different shapes and sizes.  
“These represent all of the lives that have come through here.” He notes one that’s withering and drooping and she frowns.  
“The little girl. I know they’re working up treatment for her. She says that she was in a car accident. She was riding on her father’s motorcycle with him and a car got mad at them for cutting them off so they ran them off the road. She remembers going to the hospital.” Daisy tsks and waves her fingers gently over it. The flower perks up a little, but not much.  
“She’s in a bad spot right now. You seem to be doing okay, though.” she points to a bright purple mum. It’s drooped a little to one side but it doesn’t seem to be withering. He notices the other flowers. Some in reds, some in blues. And then there’s an empty spot way at the back.  
“Jame’s spot. He comes and goes but when he blooms he’s the most beautiful daffodil.” Steve notes a bright orange daisy that is bloomed towards the middle.  
“Yeah, that’s me. My roots run through this whole garden. It was the only flower when I got here. But this place feels familiar. It feels like home?” she tells him as she follows his eyes and Steve leaned in to stroke the soft petals. He looked to daisy wand the woman’s eyes were closed and she sighed.  
“Can you feel that?” he asks and she returns his question by gently cupping his bloom and thumbing over the soft petals. He felt a sharp tug in his heart and he nodded. The tug lightened to a soft and warm feeling. Daisy smiled and stood and she twirled her fingers. The blooms all bristled like a wind had come through.  
“There, watered. Now, what do you say you help me with dinner?” he smiles as he stands and takes her hand. He kisses her forehead gently.  
“That feels nice,” she says softly and he smiles.  
“That’s good. Let’s go make dinner.”  
Steve counts the days. He feels like he’s there for months. The little girl pulled through but the old woman and the young man withered. An old man with Tourettes, a pair of twins whose parents had been murdered. Four soldiers, different groups, some missing limbs. Daisy relates to them more so Steve gathers that she knows the pain. Bucky came through twice more over the months and it hurt just as bad every time he went back.  
Steve and Daisy spend nearly every waking moment outside of the room now. He helps her look after the others, they walk through the woods, and they spend the evenings curled up on the porch together and counting the stars. Six or seven months in, Steve is losing track of the days and he realizes he’s falling in love.

The first time he kisses her, it’s after a baby fades in her arms and her sobs. Steve holds her.  
“The littlest ones hurt the worst. These small things haven’t even got the chance to live. They don’t see their mother’s faces. I’m the first and last face they see. Not their mother’s or father’s. They open their eyes and see the barrier of life and death. What the fuck kind of introduction to life is that??” she asks. She stalks outside and falls to her knees by a soft white lily, aged brown and drooped on its side. The leaves are crusted. Steve kneels next to her and watches as she waves her fingers. The flower perks up bright green, the petal white and perfect. He blinks, and the flower has been moved to the other side of the garden.  
“She’s safe, now. You made sure of that, Daisy.”  
“Sometimes,” she whispers as she stares out at the black sky with it’s star-points, “I wish that I could die. I wish that I would pass on like the others. I try to be so impartial, here. It’s in the instructions. I’m not supposed to get attached. I have to pretend. Pretend I don’t give a piece of my soul to every person who comes through here. God, Steve, I held someone’s unborn child in my arms. That woman went into labor early. That baby didn’t get to take more than a few breaths on that earth. All of them probably hurt like hell. How the hell do I just give her a pat on the back and send her in her way?” Steve cups her jaw.  
“Look at me.” she does and Steve swipes away the crystalline tears with his thumb.  
“I don’t expect you to be strong. You aren’t a god. You’re stuck here just like us. And it’s not fair of you to ferry us back and forth between death and life. Those rules, those instructions don’t make you anything less than a person.” He bites his lip and gulps as her eyes flick down to follow the motion. “And...personally, Miss Daisy, I’ve always been a rule breaker,” and then he kissed her. And she gasped and kissed him back. He could feel strength pass into him from her. Could feel her soft lips and hands in his hair. His heart hurt. They kissed next to her garden for ages. And then, like it was nothing, Steve awoke. He felt itchy and groggy and felt like hell. He could hear the beeping monitors around him, and his eyes focused enough to see Tony asleep in an uncomfortable chair. He was awake. And his heart hurt. Daisy. Daisy. Oh God, had it all been a dream? No way her soft lips and her garden and her tears had been a dream. Still, everything was normal when he fell back asleep and woke up again. The only difference was that the entire team had gathered.

The team informed him that he had fallen after being shot. He fell from a skyscraper and impacted so hard he broke the ground. He’d been steady but unconscious for six months. About as long as he’d been with Daisy. God, he had to find out whether or not she was real. Whether any of it was real.

Once he got out if the hospital, he researched. He looked up the people from the cabin. Those who passed on. Or the little girl from the motorcycle accident who made a miraculous recovery. When those started popping up, he knew that even though it sounded crazy, he wasn’t crazy.  
He barraged the government for files from 2006 backward on military personnel. Needless to say, he wasn’t making much progress there. He pulled rank at SHIELD and got what he could from them, but even though he was Captain America, his superhero status didn’t get him the answers he wanted.  
The team pulled an intervention. And Steve didn’t care if he sounded insane. So he opened his big fat mouth.  
“Look! This is going to sound crazy but while I was asleep, I met a woman. She claims to have woke up in this dream realm after a horrible accident. She acted as a barrier between life and death. She tended us. Bucky was there for a little bit too. And even though we move on, she doesn’t. She’s stuck. And I know it sounds crazy. I know people have vivid dreams, but this? I know it’s true! That she’s alive. When we were living in the cabin, I remembered the names of those who died. I looked them up and found each and every one of them. See?” he tossed a stack of newspapers down. The obits were circled. Steve starts.  
“Teen boy fails in suicide attempt. Passes away in his sleep. Brian Evans, Knoxville, Tennessee. I sat with this boy. We played cards. These soldiers. Kelley, Stones, Brixton, Marley. Marley got hit by an IED. Brixton and Kelley got tortured to death. Stones got shot in the head. We knew he wouldn't make it but Daisy stood watch over his flower until he passed and then she moved his flower to the other side of the garden.”  
“Steve...how did you know about any of these? These are all over the place and they all happened while you were asleep.”  
“Exactly! So this place had to be real. That's why I know she’s real. I know where it is, too. There’s a cabin, somewhere in Missouri. Daisy said it felt like home so I think she lived there. As for her all I know is that she’s a soldier. She got injured badly in war, and she showed up at the cabin in 2006. That’s all she remembers besides her sister.” The team looked at him but they didn’t really look at him like he was crazy. They looked determined.  
“what do you need us to do?” Steve’s eyes brimmed with tears.  
“Help me. Please. I need to find her. I promised her I’d look for her if I ever woke up.”

Their new mission was difficult. Not so much with gathering data, as Tony has better government ties, and what he isn’t given, he hacks. The issue was quantity. Turns out that, combined between all of the military’s branches, there were 110 Daisy’s. There were 20 from Missouri. Out of the 100, 5 had gone MIA.

It’s weeks of research, but Tony had it narrowed down to three.

Daisie Morano, U.S. Coast Guard during the Gulf Wars. Her ship disappeared and no one was ever recovered. Later listed KIA for belief the boat sunk in 2003.

Daisy Thomas, Marines. She was part of a government intel group. MIA on her last mission. Later listed KIA. She went missing in 2004

Daisya Dorsett. Army. Member of a top secret specialist squad. MIA during an intel mission in Afghanistan. Looking for HYDRA. Later listed KIA. She disappeared in 05. Tony put the first picture on the holo-board.  
“Is it her, Steve?” he asked and the Captain shook his head warily. Tony put up the second one.  
“How about Daisy Thomas?” he shook his head again. Tony bit his lip. Please be her he thought as he pulled up the third picture. Tony was about to ask when he turned and saw tears running down Steve's face. Oh no. Are none of them her? He watches as Cap walks forward and reaches up his hand to caress the face on the screen. Oh.

“Daisy. Honey. We’ll find you. We’ll find you, God we will. I’ll bring you home."  
They found her sister and called her.

“Why are you doing this? They already said Daisy was killed. I’ve already coped with this. It’s been 10 years!”

“I have reason to believe your sister isn’t dead. We’re trying to learn more about her,” Tony said in his most placating voice.  
“Could you tell us her last known address in Missouri?” and she gives it up readily. They take the Quinjet and Steve gapes when they land in front of a dusty Cabin. The garden is well-kept, blooms of all shapes and sizes.  
“This the place. Steve?” he nods.  
“She told me I was the purple mum on the left. This is just plain eerie.” and they enter the home. Steve can recognize everything. The hole in the kitchen’s linoleum by the fridge. The crooked cabinet under the sink. They walk by the rooms. Five of them. In the one that Steve stayed in, he spies something on the bedside table.  
“Hey, guys?” he calls. He picks them up and the familiar cord dangles between his fingers.  
“I thought I lost these when I woke up without them.” That was just plain creepy but Steve slipped them on anyways. It just proved that this place was real. It was definitely real. That hardened the team’s resolve. They contacted Fort Leonard Wood, where she shipped out from, and talked to the uppers there. All they could find out was that her team’s radio last pinged on them being near Doha Village. And the next time the ping reappeared it was in the middle of the ocean, but no one was ever recovered aside from their radio, which had been taped to a buoy.” Tony hacked into SHIELD’s HYDRA files. He looked for bases that had been known, both abandoned and still in use. He found five in the area of Kuwait where she disappeared. Two out at sea, on the island. They started with those.

Only two of the facilities were still in use, but neither as HYDRA bases. One was a weapons store. Which their friends with the government took care of. And they didn’t find anything in that one. No readings of other life. No secret tunnels. The other four on land were empty and barren and devoid of everything. Tony still took all their files, just in case. One of the ones on the island had become an opium den. They cleared it as well, but nothing. Steve hoped beyond all hope as they entered the last one. It was decrepit and mildewed on a cliff by the sea.

They’d been at this for weeks, searching for months. Steve hoped this was where she was. He wanted to bring her home. They’d nearly given up and Steve had gotten pissed and flung his shield at a wall. The wall crumbled under the pressure and an entire other room opened up. There were four cryostasis tubes, all stood up together like some sort of pick your character screen. Steve quickly darted in and smudged at the frost on the glass, wiping in large sweeps to try and uncover as much as he could. The first one he saw was a man. He looked worn and ragged. Steve's heart dropped, but he continued around the tubes. The second was a woman. Not Daisy. This woman had blonde hair and was much taller. The third was another man. He was stocky, and Steve had recognized him from a picture in Daisy’s house. She had to be here! There, in the fourth one, Steve made out the lips he kissed that night, saw the soft hair and the figure. But she was vastly different from the dream. Her arm, her left one, was severed and sewn. She had many newly healing burn scars on her neck, chin, and right side. But Steve couldn’t be bothered as he grinned and kissed the glass before bowing his forehead against it.  
“Gotcha honey. Let’s go home."  
“Over here!” He was so relieved. He felt like it was finally ending. Everything was going to be okay again.  
As the four were loaded, Tony took note of their HYDRA files.  
“They participated in a HYDRA-led Weapon X Program. Unwillingly. There’s a list that goes until 2011 of who they “drafted.””  
“So, they were experimented on and then tortured within an inch of their life to bring about a reaction with the gene?”  
“Yeah, Cap. Daisy’s calls her a healer and sensor. Not sure what all that entails. Collins here was in the same troop as her. He can shift forms. This lady is Eugenia Jones. Navy girl who disappeared at port in 09. Her’s is labeled as having mental power. They don’t elaborate on it. This last one, Jeff Kline. He was on the flight 729 that was brought down over Afghan airspace and everyone aboard was believed to be dead. He is labeled as a "firewalker." Which sounds outrageously cool.” Steve was really trying his hand at listening, but he was also extremely nervous. When they got her out of cryo, there was still the chance she might not wake up. But God, if she did! What would he even say? Tony snorted and patted his shoulder.  
“Hey,” he said in all seriousness. Steve looked to him.  
“It’s gonna be okay. You did a good thing.” Steve smiles and Tony leaves him be.

Steve bought daisies. He thought it was fitting. A cut orange daisy symbolizing her freedom. The hospital called him as her vitals got into a cognizant zone. Nd Steve had been there for a day and a half already, Tony popping in every few hours to check on the both of them  
He watches her as she sleeps and the color returns to her cheeks. It makes him nervous. What is he gonna say to her?  
She woke slowly. It wasn’t like she was waking up in the cabin. It was too slow and sluggish for that. It clicked when she wiggled under blankets and she felt warm for the first time in 10 years. And when. she finally opened her eyes and managed to set her sights on him, she balked. Her throat was dry as she swallowed.  
“Woah. Uh...this is backwards.” Steve grinned and her heart leapt.  
“Hi sweetheart, I brought you home. Like I promised.” she grinned and tears welled in her eyes. He’d rescued her. She was free.  
“Gee, you look so much better fully alive.” He’d chuckled at her.  
“You look just as beautiful as I remembered,” Steve said back. What a sap. She went to reach for him, to hold him and cry and be happy with him, but her left arm wouldn’t cooperate. She looked down and it was then that she noticed. She felt proud of herself, that she didn't faint. Instead, the room went black for a different reason and her bones filled with ice

She had a PTSD attack. She kept saying they’d created Steve to keep her complacent and he needed to stop fucking talking to her! She had to be sedated and Steve cried afterward.

When she awoke again, she sought him out. She was using a wheelchair as her muscle were very unresponsive due to the time in ice. She settled next to his perch on the bench and stared at the courtyard flowers. It was a long silence before either one spoke past the greeting they'd exchanged when she joined him.

She spoke about what happened.  
“I remember it now. We were sent out to gather intel, to steal information. They captured us. Forced something into our body. Some sort of radiated gene. And then they tortured us until we started to change.” Daisy flicked her fingers and the garden before they twisted up and bloomed brighter. It helped the old withered plant that obviously hadn’t seen water in a few days perk up. Steve tried to be light-hearted, but he hurt for her, so much. Still, he cleared his throat and managed to look at her.  
“A healer, huh?” she smirked, but it fell into a grimace.  
“Yeah, that’s what they labeled me. And they curated me. Kept me on ice. Harvested my DNA and stuff to try and enhance their soldiers.” Steve winced. She rubbed over her shoulder.  
“Before the cryo, they had harvested them live but I had gotten mouthy and pesky. I escaped. Or so I thought. Ran over an IED and the thing blew me sky high. Before the cryo, they just beat us into complacency. But I became a poster child when they stuck me on ice, so they started doing it with the others.”  
“Have you talked to any of the others? Anyone from your troop?” he asks. He knows the answer but he wants to hear it from her.  
“One. Collins. He’s uh, he’s a shifter now. He can shift into a wolf. The rest probably didn’t alter like they’d wanted. The two others with us, a woman from the navy. They’d captured her at port. The other man is a civilian. He had been traveling on holiday but the Taliban forced his plane down. They shot his wife and son in front of him. I remember his wife. The son died instantly, but the wife laid and died for nearly an hour. I fed her dinner before she left.” Steve wrapped an arm around her and tucked her towards him so he could kiss her forehead. She sighs and it’s like the person pulling their strings has set them down and walked off, the way the sagged into each other.  
“I missed that.”  
“I missed you,” he replies and she chuckles.  
“Smooth as hell, ain’t ya?”  
“Damn straight I am, Dais.” and he looked down at her with her shining eyes and kisses her. All this between them is damned. She’s alive and okay and that’s all that matters. She sighs into his mouth. They embrace in the courtyard until a throat clears. Daisy jerks back and Tony grins. Steve managed to keep his glare to a disapproving level instead of an “I’ll gut you" level.  
“This makes so much more sense. No wonder Steve was so eager to get you back.”  
“Oh shut it, Stark. I’ll run you over “ Daisy grumbles and Tony shrugs. Steve squeezes her hand. His little spitfire  
“Well, you can run me over all you like, but that might put a damper on the job I’m about to offer you. And the prosthetic arm I’m building for you.” she cries when Tony explains everything and yanks the genius down by his tie so she can hug him and thank him properly.

She goes through physical therapy to help her muscles and her arm and they send her home. Well, she is confused about where home is, and despite the team’s knowledge, Steve thought it best to contact a friend. Standing there at the entrance to the hospital was a woman and a child. Steve could see the resemblance. Daisy’s knees nearly buckled as she and the woman ran forward and hugged each other.  
“Nora. God, Nora look at you! I’ve missed so much.” they cried for a bit and Nora introduced Annaleese to her aunt.  
“Hey there Anna-Banana! I’m gonna be the best aunt you’ve ever had.” they eat lunch together and catch up as best they can. Daisy still doesn’t remember everything and there are some things she’d prefer not to talk about. They fly in the Quinjet to Daisy’s cabin.

When she pulls up to it. she balks. It looks exactly like hers in the spirit realm. The flowerbed by the porch is full of an array of different flowers.  
“They just started growing. I wasn’t sure where they came from but I watered them for you,” Nora told her. Daisy looked to the bright orange Daisy in the middle and sighed before walking inside. They packed up her clothes, her photos.

They packed the place and they cleaned it up. Posting it for sale was the last step before they left Nora and Anna behind and went back to New York.

Daisy settled in beautifully. She lived separate from Steve, on her own floor, just because this thing blossoming between them was new. That didn’t stop her from showing up in his room at 3 am with tear stained eyes and her own blanket. He welcomed her into his arms and kissed her until her bad dreams melted away. And she settled so nicely. Through some deeper research, they learned more about her healing power. And her sensory ability. She has low-level empathic abilities as well. And that explains why he always feels refreshed when he falls into her arms after a long day. She has long days too, sometimes working with SHIELD outside of her job as a live-in consultant for the Avengers.

Which worked well until SHIELD fell. That was when they found Bucky. And really, despite their strength and tech, Steve, Sam and Nat took a backseat as Daisy marched up and caught his metal fist, knife and all, with her flesh one. The impact should’ve thrown her and shattered her hand but Steve could see how confused Bucky was so he doubts Bucky's punch even made full contact, let alone actually do any damage. She yanked him down to lean their foreheads together and she was muttering urgently. They watched on as he struggled with himself, as Daisy’s fingers undid his mask, letting it fall. As she smudged the blackness under his eyes, she smiled. She lured him to the compound, where she sat with him for days. During that time, she healed his mind. She healed him from those words. He seemed all the better for it when he awoke.  
“You’re the funky little woman from the halfway house.” Steve chuckled at his buddy's first words.  
“The halfway house?” he teased. Bucky looked happy to see him, but he still glared playfully.  
“Well, I was half-dead, it seemed appropriate punk.”  
“Jerk,” Steve snorted and Daisy rolled her eyes.  
“Boys. We can fight over cool names for my cabin in the woods later. For now, James needs to sleep and he needs more time to heal.” She beckoned Steve put to give James some privacy. He walked to her and they left together. Bucky looked down at Steve and Daisy’s entwined hands, how the soldier lifted them to kiss her knuckles and smile like a loon as they waited for the elevator. Bucky smirked.  
Good for you, punk.

Steve and Daisy slept in the same bed every night now that she had the new arm. She had officially moved in that day. It had been four months since they rescued her and some of the best months of his life. She leaned up and kissed him and he accepted it, chuckling at her eagerness.  
“What’s that for?”  
“I love you,” she breathes out and Steve smiles.  
“I love you too, Daisy.” It felt great to finally say it. They kissed again, only breaking it so daisy could whisper a question into his ear. Make love to me? He replied by rolling them so she was below him and he kissed her thorough.

Clothes were peeled off slowly and hands roamed skin. Steve filled her with himself so achingly slowly that she whined and bucked. And when he couldn't control himself, he fucked her so hard her eyes crossed. They were like one. She clung to him, moaned her love for him. He put his affection into every kiss and nibble of her neck. And when they fell apart, it was twined in each other’s arms. It was one of the best nights of his life.

At night, when he dreams, sometimes he and Daisy go back to The Realm. Now that she’s free, she admits missing the place a little. So they go. They visit with those who dwell in the cabin and they sit in the garden and tend the flowers. And it’s all Steve needs, as he looks at his beautiful wife whose stomach would never swell round with their child. He thinks of the dog at the end of their bed, Dionysus (Bucky picked the name and the dog had gotten so used to it before Steve realized it's lineage that it was too late to change it, the jerk.), and how the smartass would wedge himself in between their twined limbs before morning and it made him smile. She takes his hand and grins. He pulls her close and kisses her, and it’s like the first one all over again. They lay back and watch the stars, her head pillowed on his chest.

They go to The Realm every night they can, for many years. Steve has to help her up in the mornings now, and he has to help her up and down the stairs. But she is still a vision with her gray curls and sassy glare.  
One night, many many years from the start, as they lay under those stars in The Realm, Steve is holding her and she smiles up at him. And he smiles too, and finally, finally, lets her go. The lights in the cabin behind him flicker on and the garden blooms shoot up another inch. There a woman on the porch, from Steve’s memories.  
“You’ll catch a cold out here Captain Dumbass.” and he grins and follows that little mop of brown hair into the cabin and he never wakes up.


End file.
